


Until We Rebuild

by oh_heccity



Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies), Spider-Man - All Media Types, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - No Powers, Alternate Universe - Zombie Apocalypse, Angst, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Angst with a Happy Ending, Bombing, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Eventual Happy Ending, Eventual Relationships, Everyone Is Alive, Everyone Needs A Hug, F/M, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Heavy Angst, Heavy topics, Hurt, Irondad, M/M, Multi, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Peter Parker Angst, Peter Parker Needs a Hug, Polyamory, Precious Peter Parker, Tony Stark Needs a Hug, eventual irondad, im so sorry, peter does eventually get that hug, spiderson, you might cry in later chapters
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-10-21
Updated: 2019-12-27
Packaged: 2020-12-24 12:33:25
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 4
Words: 7,914
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21099530
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/oh_heccity/pseuds/oh_heccity
Summary: On October 24th, 20XX was when it all started, the news declared that there were the undead out and about when they're supposed to be in their graves. Now pushed for time, everyone must evacuate the city and only pray for survival.Chapter 1 - ?? - Prologue





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> ive noticed that there is not a lot of zombie apocalypse aus in this fandom so i decided to write one for myself so i hope that yall enjoy it!!!! uwuwu  
also shout out to my friend salty for helping me with beta'ing this!!!!! it means a lot to me for you to take time out of your schedule to beta this!!!!
> 
> theres no triggers in the chapter to say the least so but if you think i was wrong please just tell me in the comments and ill put it in the tags and in the foot notes!!! :^) <33333333

Tony Stark was supposed to be a meeting when everything went to shit. He was in his lab, totally ignoring the multitude of messages and calls from Pepper Potts. Which were, without a doubt, her yelling what he was missing was ‘important’.

By one in the afternoon, Tony had decided to humor Pepper by calling her back, fully knowing that the meeting was done with.

Tony heard the phone ring five times before Pepper picked it up.

“Tony! Why haven’t you called me back—”

“I’ve been in my lab all day. I wasn’t really feeling up to go to that meeting.” Tony had cut her off, not in the mood to be yelled at.

“You’re still in town? Have you not seen the news this morning?”

“I didn’t have the time. Like I said, I’ve been in my lab all day. I’ve been working on a new project.”

Pepper sounded frantic, her voice shrill over the phone. “Tony, you have to get out of town _right now_. There was some sort of outbreak and people who were already dead are back to life somehow? I don’t know that much but I heard the military is planning something for New York and other major cities.”

Tony let out a snort of laughter. There was no fucking way that people were coming back from the dead. It sounded like a shitty horror movie from the 80’s. But giving Pepper the benefit of the doubt, Tony had walked over to the floor-to-ceiling windows.

To immediately see the city of New York in shambles — or, well, more in shambles than it usually is.

“Holy shit.” Tony said, his voice breathy in surprise. “Did this just happen today?”

“It’s been going on for the past few weeks. It really came to shit early this morning. Tony, for the love of _God_, please get out of there.”

Tony nodded, still looking grimly at the outside world. He spotted a few people — or, he _hoped_ they were people — walking about. He trusted Pepper’s logic on what to do in this situation. “How will I find you, Pep?”

“I’m going north to the cabin we rented a couple of years ago for our anniversary. Hopefully no one is living there right now. Traffic is bad. Seems like everyone who saw the news early enough is trying to get out on the highway. A lot of people are heading south, though.”

“I doubt that I could get a car through all this mess. I'll definitely take longer than you.”

“Just stay safe will you?” Pepper asked. Her worried tone of voice did not go unnoticed by Tony.

“Yea, I’ll stay safe. Just promise me that you will too.”

Pepper hummed, Tony could hear her acrylic nails tapping against the steering wheel, an idiosyncrasy that she had since Tony met her. “I promise. Love you,”

“Love you too.” With those final words, Pepper ended the phone call. It was just Tony, left in the silence of his lab with the daunting knowledge of the impending apocalypse.

He didn’t even know where to start.

This obviously wasn’t a holiday or a business trip, so he couldn’t bring his work. Tony doubted that electricity and the internet would even be working in a couple of days. He could make an exception for his phone and a solar charger, it may be the apocalypse but Tony wasn’t going to become a complete savage and abandon his phone.

Medicine, food and water were the first things that Tony really packed. It seemed like common sense to pack the essentials. Who knew when it was going to be the next time he was going to eat and be able to drink clean water out there in the wild. And if he was hurt? God, Tony didn’t even want to think about getting hurt out there.

Clothes and a blanket that stayed at the foot of his bed were the second things Tony hastily packed into the backpack Rhodey had given him a couple years back in hopes to get the man out of the penthouse and on some sort of backpacking trip. It didn’t work, but Tony kept the backpack in the back of his closet. Who knew it would become handy.

When Tony had first opened the backpack, he found a basic survival kit with bandages, a couple of flares, and almost everything that could be found in a survival kit. It made him question kind of backpacking trip Rhodey was planning.

Regardless, with everyone now packed, Tony wandered around the penthouse and his lab without any set path. It was thoughtless, brought upon by introspection. He reckoned it was likely the last time he would ever see his home again.

In his lab, Tony looked at the red toolbox that sat harmlessly on the table. It was an incredibly dinky thing with dents and paint chipping off in some areas but it was one of the first toolboxes he had received from his mother. Even though his backpack was already quite full and already quite heavy with his supplies and without, Tony still grabbed it and put it in his backpack. It was too important to leave.

Thanks to the countless horror movies he had watched when he was younger, he knew that in a zombie apocalypse you needed a long range weapon to even have a chance of survival. Now, Tony didn’t have any practical weapons except for the sword someone had given him a couple of years back. He just never put it into storage or sent it off to a museum so it was discarded on the mantle below his television. Tony didn’t know how to use it at all outside the few times he went outside as a child and played with smaller branches that had fallen down in storms.

As a final thought, Tony quickly ran back to his lab to grab a notebook and a couple of pens. Sure, it seemed useless right now, but since it seemed that no one knew what was happening it was a good idea to write down what he observed while heading North.

Despite him leaving for an indefinite amount of time, Tony still grabbed his keys that sat innocently in a wooden bowl next to the elevator doors. He didn’t know why he grabbed them, perhaps it was because Pepper had got him a keychain a couple years back as a birthday present and he sees it as a good luck charm. Or perhaps it was because he lived up here for so long that it just became a habit to grab his keys every time he left the penthouse.

Not knowing if the electricity was still on, Tony didn’t want to risk being stuck in an elevator for a long time because it was likely no electricians were still in the city so he took the stairs. Which would also take a long time just because of how big the building was.

Being outside was completely different than looking down at it from his lab windows. Everything seemed more broken outside, with cars littered across the streets and the fact that no one else besides him was in sight. It was completely different from what Tony was used to.

Usually not one for walking, Tony thought about taking one of his smaller cars but ultimately decided against it. People often went batshit crazy when they didn’t have a plan when everything went to shit and saw a rich mans’ car. That was bound to get him killed.

If he was to die, he rather not die at the hands of some wack-job.

So walking it was.

As he walked, the quietness unnerved him. There were no cars buzzing down the street, no sales merchant on the street trying to get him to buy food or some sort of product. If Tony focused hard enough, he thought he could actually hear the noise of New York. But perhaps he was already going crazy.

As he walked further, he noticed that most of the stores were closed with the windows boarded up. There were a few people who still had their stores open up to the public but Tony doubted that there would actually be anything important. The people who left early probably cleaned out the stores the best they could before leaving.

For the majority of Manhattan, everything looked relatively the same if you ignored the fact that there were significantly less people on the streets, a few cars on the sidewalk (that was actually quite normal if they were totalled against the lamp posts), and the occasional undead walking about. Tony tried to ignore them and walked faster, hoping nothing would come close to him.

When he had finally made it to Bronx, it was completely different than Manhattan. From what Tony could see, it looked like it was hit the worst. He saw people carrying out a multitude of things from different apartment buildings and the stories that were previously closed up that Tony didn’t think would matter, but he believed it was a person’s choice if the world is going to end. He tried to stay out of their way and out of their line of sight. He didn’t feel like getting into a scuffle with half-crazed people so early in the day. At least give him some coffee and a couple more days..

Reaching the suburbs was peaceful to some degree. There wasn’t a lot of people around except a few of the undead lurking about but they seemed to ignore Tony. If he looked past the daunting threat of being eaten alive by the undead, the trees looked quite nice this time of year. Perhaps he would’ve been able to appreciate the scenery more if someone didn’t cock their gun behind him.

Turning around, Tony saw an intimidating man with shoulder-length hair and with deep bags lined under his eyes. It wasn't important to describe him, because what Tony was most worried about was the fact that the man was pointing a gun _right between his eyes_.

“Hey -- whoa now!” Tony held his arms up in the universal sign of peace. _Guess I was right._ He thought to himself grimly as he stared right down the barrel of the gun._ I really am going to die because of nutjobs._

“Tones?” He knew that voice. Opening his eyes, Tony saw the gun being lowered slightly so that it was now angled at his feet, and looking past the absolutely scary guy holding his gun, Tony saw his best friend.

“Rhodey?”


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Steve, Sam, and Bucky start to leave New York with the help of their co-worker and friend Rhodey

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> idk if yall have noticed but im taking a couple of artistic liberties with everything so uhhh i dont know how horribly wrong i got these !!!!
> 
> also happy halloween!!!! as i write this/post this its still technically halloween for me so!!!!! thats straight up vibes uwwu

Steve Rogers was in the kitchen making himself a bowl of cereal as he listened to Bucky Barnes and Sam Wilson bicker in the living room over some show that he has never seen before.

“What are you two fighting about this time?” Steve asked when he came into the living room, holding his bowl, spoon in his mouth.

“Who’s turn it is with the remote.” Bucky glared at Sam who was tugging back the remote.

Although quite used to this endless bickering, Steve snatched the remote out of their hands as he sat down on the arm chair. “It’s like living with children with the excessive arguing you two do. If you can’t figure out what to watch, I’ll just decide for you so we’ll be watching the news.”

The two groaned. “The news is boring though! Can’t we watch some shitty reality tv show?”

“Over the past two weeks, countless of New York residents have reported seeing their dead friends and family out and about. Now the police have confirmed that this is true and the police recommend that you and your family get out of New York as soon as possible.” The news reporter said, they looked scared.

“There is no way that he fucking undead are out and about.” Bucky scoffed as he stood up and walked over to the window, as much as he didn’t believe this, he was still going to check, just to make sure.

“Holy shit,” Sam so eloquently said when he joined Bucky at the window. Sure enough the news reporter was correct, there were in fact the undead roaming the streets.

Then the phone rang, breaking the heavy silence that fell between the three men and making them all jump at once.

“Hello?” Steve was the one who picked up the phone.

“Did you see the news?” James Rhodes - who was a mutual friend from the army of the three - said, not even bothering to say hello back to Steve.

“Yea, I’ll put you on speaker.” Steve took the phone away from his ear to put the phone on speaker mode so that Bucky and Sam could hear what Rhodey had to say.

“Did you three see the news?” Rhodey stated again now that the others could hear him.

“Not that much but we heard about the undead that are up and walking.” Bucky grumbled, still looking outside on the street.

“Good, you’re aware then.” Rhodey sounded out of breath as he seemed to be walking up the stairs. “You three are the closest to me so I’m coming up your stairs so you better have your door unlocked.”

Steve could barely get out any words before Rhodey was opening the door and locking in behind him.

The new arrival had his army issued backpack and Steve noticed a small handgun in the waistband of his pants. “You three need to pack now so that we can leave at a reasonable time. I trust that you have some sort of inkling of what to pack.”

“Where are even going to go?” Sam asked as he headed off to the kitchen, looking through the cupboards for any non perishable food items they had.

“North. Saw a whole bunch of people heading South.”

“Why are they going South?”

“Probably because of all of the old military bases that are down there, might be because of the warm weather and agriculture.” Rhodey said as he started to help put the cans of food on the kitchen counter for everyone to divvy up between the four of them. “It sounds like a good idea when the thought it for running through your head but if you think about it in the long term, if almost the entire population of New York heading down South, they might not have enough supplies and we don’t know the cause of this break out yet. If the breakout involves a large amount of people, heading South with everyone else seems like a death wish.”

Steve set down three camouflage backpacks similar to Rhodey’s. “How much non-perishable food do you think we have?”

“Depends how we decide to split everything up.” Rhodey set his own backpack on the dining room table as Steve had, taking out the majority of what he had in it. “We have enough people to actually split this up evenly so if we get split up we would have enough food to survive.”

Bucky brought out the two medkits they kept in the medicine cabinet just in case if someone injured themselves while cooking (it was usually Steve who accidentally nicked himself. He was more of the mediator of the household, not the cook.). “What kind of supplies do you have Rhodey?”

“Some food, some medicine and some ammo.” Rhodey said as he started to sort the food and medicine equally between the four backpacks. “That reminds me, do you have any weapons or at least something that could be a weapon?”

“We have kitchen knives and army issued guns.” Sam replied as he rummaged around the kitchen drawers and pulled out the knives and laid them out on the counter.

“Grab both. Guns will be good long range but ammo probably won’t last long.”

Steve nodded his head solmony as he saw Bucky dip into the small closest they had in the hallway to get into the gun safe, once Bucky was around the corner, Steve took a step towards the counter and started to help Rhodey back everything into the backpacks

The four men spent the majority of the morning packing everything into the bags before the left their small two bedroom apartment. Out of the apartment and into the main hallway, Steve heard scratching against their neighbors door.

“Leave it,” Rhodey said sharply, not even looking back at Steve but the taller man knew that he also heard the scratching. “Going in there will just be a complete waste of time for us and we need to get out of here as soon as possible.”

Sam looked startled at how cold Rhodey was being towards someone who could possibly need help, normally Rhodey was all over helping someone. “Why can’t we go help them? It’ll probably only take a few minutes at most!”

“Who’s ever in there is probably a zombie, they don’t need our help.” Rhodey said shortly, his hand staying firmly at the gun that was tucked away in the waist of his pants.

“Old Ms. Russell? That lady is probably like one hundred years old! She could barely hurt a fly!” Bucky tried to reason with Rhodey to go back up the stairs to help.

Rhodey turned around with a hard look on his face, although his eyes looked remorseful. “Zombies don’t care if they knew you in their past life or not. All they worry about is when they’re going to get their next meal is and if you show any remorse to them, you’ll be their next meal.”

Rhodey’s little rant effectively shut the other three men up as they walked in silence for the rest of the building.

Once they exited the building, Sam spoke up again. “Who are you looking for?”

Rhodey turned around, looking Sam dead in the eye. “What do you mean?”

“You’re looking for someone. You’re moving at a pace that’s time consuming like you’re worried that you won’t make it in time.”

“Of course I’m worried, the whole state of New York is being overrun by zombies.” Rhodey ran his hand over his face and he looked to be years older. “But yeah, I’m looking for one of my friends. He’s quite self-destructive so I’m worried about how he’s faring right now, his girlfriend is probably worried about him too.”

“So we’re just looking for your self-destructive friend?” Bucky asked with a condescending voice.

“I’m also taking you to safety, I just happen to also be looking for my friend. It’s called multitasking.”

Steve piped up into the conversation, now curious about Rhodey’s mysterious friend. “Do you even know where your friend is going to be?”

Rhodey let out a long sigh, his shoulders slumping in defeat. “No but I hope that he’s going to the same place that I have in mind.”

With no other questions in mind, the group of four fell into silence as they walked down the sidewalk, watching people run past them holding TVs and valuables and cars packed tightly together on the streets (although that was quite normal, both scenes were if it weren’t for the impending doom of zombies.).

* * *

It was about midday, with the sun setting slightly just so it was touching the tips of the trees when they saw someone else wandering around the suburbs. Instantly Bucky had his gun out and pointing slightly at the man. One wrong move of the unsuspecting would leave a bullet hole in his skull.

“What are you doing?” Rhodey hissed at Bucky who was creeping closer and closer to the man who was standing in front of the tree line.

“He could be dangerous. What if he attacks first?”

“We’re dangerous, I don’t know if you noticed but we’re four men with guns.” Rhodey hissed again, reaching to pull Bucky back by the collar of his shirt but when Rhodey closed his hand, all he got was air.

Bucky didn’t reply as he stalked closer and closer to the man, if the man turned around now he would be eye level with a gun.

The man did turn around but Rhodey didn’t get a good look at his face with Bucky’s bulk covering the the much smaller man.

A few moments of tense silence went by before Rhodey noticed the man's backpack strap that seemed to have a name stitched into the side. What made Rhodey uncomfortable was the fact that he knew the stitching and especially the name. “Tones?”

The man, who Rhodey was positive was his best friend Tony, poked his head around Bucky’s body and sure enough, the man who Bucky wanted to kill was Tony.

“Rhodey?” Tony asked hesitantly before breaking out in a wide grin and pushed past Bucky who had a startled look on his face as Tony gave Rhodey a hug who gladly returned it. “Holy shit man! I thought I would never see you again! What are the chances that we just happen to come across each other?”

Tony leaned in closer into the hug, his mouth almost touching Rhodey’s ear. “These three with you?”

Rhodey nodded as they broke apart although they were still touching, Tony’s hand gripping onto Rhodey’s arm tightly with the hand that wasn’t holding the sword.

“Are you heading up to the cabin?” Rhodey asked, hoping that they had the same plan in mind so that they wouldn’t have to be split up again.

Tony nodded. “Pep called me a couple of hours ago saying that she would meet me there. Are you heading there as well?”

“It’s far enough north that not a lot of people would think of.” Rhodey nudged Tony in the side with a teasing smile on his face. “Glad to see that you’re using the backpack I gave you years ago.”

Tony let out a snort of laughter as he rolled his eyes. “It was the only bag that would really work. Also what kind of backpacking trip were you thinking? Flares and a whole ass med kit?”

“You’re quite self destructive, I had to prepare accordingly.”

A moment of silence fell between the two as they basked in each others company. “You must be Rhodey’s friend, I’m Steve Rogers and these are my friends Sam Wilson and Bucky Barnes.” Steve stuck out his hand to take which Tony took hesitantly, he probably only took it to seem not like an asshole.

“Stark, Tony Stark. Honey bear over here has told a few things to me about you,”

“All good things I hope,” Steve said with a teasing smile as he let go of Tony’s hand and everything seemed to be alright at this moment.

They could only wish that it would stay like this for a little while longer.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Clint and Natasha have a small argument about leaving the safety of their hideout before actually leaving.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> happy thanksgiving everyone!!!! or to those who celebrate it and to those who dont, have a great day off from school/work!!!!

Clint Barton and Natasha Romanoff were in the suburbs on a mission. It was a quiet mission, all they had to do was to investigate a certain family man who supposedly been dabbling in some quite illegal drugs and ignoring the multiple late taxes notices from the IRS in favor of buying prostitutes for a night full of drugs and sex. 

All in all it was a simple mission, it was just extremely time consuming. 

“Can’t we end this mission?” Clint groaned as his head hung over the arm of the couch, ever the drama queen. “We’ve been at this for _months_ and this old fart hasn’t left his house in_ weeks_.”

“We haven’t either Clint,” Natasha said as she rolled her eyes at her co-worker. “Now scoot, I want to sit down but your legs are in the way.” 

Clint groaned again as he rolled his eyes but dutifully removed his legs just long enough for Natasha to sit down and then his legs were draped across her lap, her bowl sitting on top of his legs. “Do we have to watch the news? I just want to watch cartoons!”

“I swear,” Natasha slapped Clint’s calf. “I feel like I’m working with a child instead of an adult.”

Clint snorted. “I am an adult! I just happen to have some taste in the television that I watch.” 

“_New York is now in a state of emergency. Please go to your nearest military base. I repeat, New York is now in a state of emergency, please go to your nearest military base. Please only back the necessities._” The news reporter said as she looked at the camera although she often looked down at her papers that she held in a tight grip. This was obviously on short notice. 

The screen faded away from the news reporter but her voice was still clear enough for them to hear as a video started to play of a group of people shambling through the streets and people running away from them. 

The video among others played over and over again before the screen went back to the the news reporter but this time, she was far paler than before and once again repeating the same announcement. “_New York is now in a state of emergency, please go to your nearest military base for safety._”

The camera cut off, leaving the television with a black screen. 

“What the fuck?” Clint asked, lifting his head and now staring at the black screen. “Why the_ fuck_ is New York in a state of emergency?”

Natasha was also staring at the screen although her shock was far more concealed than Clint’s “I could not tell you. You and I have been in this house for the longest time.”

“Do you think we should leave?” Clint asked, “You know, take their advice?”

Natasha snorted as she rolled her eyes. “I don’t believe it.” 

Clint sat up abruptly. “You really don’t believe it? How long does it take for a fucking state to be put into emergancy?”

“I’ll believe it when I see it Clint,” Natasha stated plainly. “I find it hard to believe that people are actually coming back from the dead, seems like a horror movie to me.”

“And I’ve seen practically _all_ of those kinds of horror movies! I know how to survive this!”

“Those are horror_ movies_ Clint. They aren’t real life!”

“You saw the news Nat! The undead are back and holy hell, New York is fucked!” Clint argued back, “At least we can get prepared!”

Natasha took another bite of her cereal. “Fine, I don’t believe this but I can at least help.”

Clint lightened up as he instantly got up from the couch and ran off into the conjoined kitchen. “What should I pack?”

“I thought you’ve seen all of these horror movies, shouldn’t you know what to pack?”

Clint was silent for a few moments before he began to open and close the cabinet doors frantically. “Do we have any chocolate or Twinkies? I heard that chocolate and Twinkies doesn’t have an expiration date which means that however long this lasts we could forever have a staple food supply!”

Natasha let out a snort of laughter as she took another bite of her cereal. “You sound like a child Clint. If I’m to come with, I don’t want to be eating junk food so pack more food that won’t give us diabetes.”

The movement in the kitchen stopped before Clint spoke up again, his voice sounding excited. “So you’re coming with?”

“If you’re packing like that, then no.” Natasha said sarcastically as she put her now empty bowl into the sink and turned to Clint. “We’re coworkers remember? We have to stick together.”

Clint stared at Natasha in awe before his face broke into a wide grin. “That means that you’re on food duty if you’re so adamant about what we’re going to be eating!” 

Once again, Natasha rolled her eyes at Clint’s childish antics but began to gather up the canned food they had in the cabinets. 

* * *

“Do you think Fury knows about this?” Clint asked as he hoisted up his backpack over his shoulders as Natasha locked the door. Seemed pointless because they weren’t going to be living there anymore and who knows the next time they were going to return. 

Natasha slipped the house keys into a little side pocket of the backpack as she turned to Clint although her eyes trained on the scenery behind him, looking out on the bare of kids who were usually running around in the street kicking a ball back and forth. “He knows everything,”

Clint pouted, not exactly happy with the answer he was given. “That’s not an answer.” 

“But it’s the answer that I’m giving you.” 

Clint’s pout became more exaggerated at Natasha’s dismissive answer but decided to drop it and change the topic to something else. “Where are we going to go now?”

Natasha kicked a rock, looking at the cookie-cutter houses that lined the street. How did she not notice some of the windows boarded up and the curtains drawn tight? Some spy she was. “You say you’ve seen all these types of movies so where do you think we should go?”

“Hm, probably find a group of people and become allies.” Clint said after a moment of hesitation.

“Then we’ll do the opposite of that.” Natasha said plainly as she hoisted up her backpack and tightened the straps and began walking, ignoring Clint’s offended squawk and his sneakers slapping against the sidewalk as he ran to catch up to her.

* * *

“Can we stop for the night?” Clint whined as he dragged his feet through the fallen leaves as they were walking through the forest that was only a few miles away from the house they were staying in. 

Natasha rubbed at her temples, as much as she appreciated Clint for being with her and his actually quite insightful tidbits of knowledge on how to survive in the forest (Natasha assumed all of this knowledge was from movies), he was really acting like a child. 

Either way, she ignored Clint’s complaints as she walked along. Although she didn’t get far before she stopped so suddenly Clint ran into her back.

“Why did you stop?” 

“Shh,” Natasha brought a finger up to Clint’s mouth wanting him to be quiet as she pointed to a bright light. “Look,”

Clint’s eyes followed to where Natasha was pointing. “That means someone is there!” He said in a harsh whisper, his voice right next to her ear. “We should go talk to them!”

Natasha whipped her head around, her red hair hitting Clint in the mouth making him sputter. “Are you crazy?” She glared at him, speaking in the same harsh whisper. “What if they kill us?”

“We can fight back! We have guns!”

“Do you see the shadows Clint? There’s obviously more people than us!” Natasha wildly waved her hand to the light that danced across the trees. 

“Well maybe they’re nice and they can help us!” Clint argued back as he pushed past Natasha, going to go talk to the strangers despite what his friend said. 

Natasha watched him walk past with a glare plastered on her face. “If you get killed you’re in so much trouble.” She said as she walked behind Clint, her hand placed firmly on her gun and she saw that Clint did too, good, at least he had some common sense.

“Mind if we take advantage of your fire as well?” Clint asked as he walked into the light, an easy smile on his face while Natasha still had an ice-cold glare. “It’s awfully cold out tonight.”

Silence rang through the camp before the man wearing a suit jacket and sporting a scruffy beard let out a short bark of laughter. “Sure thing, just don’t kill us as we eat our beans.”

The man next to Scruffy-Beard hit him in the arm and hissed at him to stop.

The other three men looked hesitant to allow them closer considering that they had most definitely noticed their hands on their guns, they did the same. 

“I’m Clint by the way and this is my co-worker Natasha.” He introduced himself, still keeping the easy going smile on his face.

“I’m Tony, nice to meet you two.” Scruffy-Beard now dubbed Tony stuck out his hand for them to shake. “I was serious about the whole not killing us thing, would really appreciate if you didn’t kill us.” 

Natasha took the offered hand, squeezing Tony’s hand tightly as she gave him a tight lipped smile. “Only if you don’t kill us first.”


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Thor and Bruce quickly leave New York quickly with a helpful call from a friend.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry this took oh so long to get out!!!! i have other fics to write as well and i dont have a set updating schedule (aka updating every week) but i do update my fics in a certain order!
> 
> also!!!! although a day (or two depending when this updates) late, merry christmas to those who celebrate it!!!! and to those who don't happy holidays!!!!! i hope you all had a very relaxing day to recharge and that if you saw family, they werent too stressful! 
> 
> this is possibly one of the longest chapters of the prologue (yet ;^)) im full of ideas for the last chapter of the prologue) even if this chapter gave me a lot of hardships and this probably makes zero (0) sense uwu

Bruce Banner was in his office grading papers for his nursing college course when Thor Odinson, his boyfriend of four years burst through the door looking very frazzled, his hair that was usually looking neat minus a few stray flyaways was now in an extremely messy ponytail with strands of hair falling out of it and framing his face. 

“Thor?” Bruce stood up from the worn desk, the half-way graded papers left abandoned as he walked around the desk to go comfort his frazzled boyfriend. “Is everything okay?”

Thor brushed off his boyfriend’s concern as he gripped Bruce’s hands together in his much larger hands. “How long have you been in here? Why is your phone off, I’ve been trying to call and text you all night!”

Bruce stared at Thor dumbly, his brown eyes blinking multiple times as he tried to find the right words. “Uh, since I left this morning? What time is it now?”

“It’s 7:45 at_ night_ Bruce,” 

“Oh,” Bruce said dumbly as he stared at the papers still spread across his desk. “Let’s go home then, shall we?” Bruce smiled up at his boyfriend as he stood up, grabbing a few of the papers he had yet to grade. 

“We need to get out of town,” Thor said suddenly, startling his boyfriend. 

“What?” 

“We need to get out of town right now.” Thor repeated as he tugged on Bruce’s hand wanting him to hurry up. 

Bruce pulled his arm back, staring at Thor’s wild eyes. “Explain to me what’s going on first.” 

Thor took a deep breath and nodded. “I can’t blame you for not knowing what’s going on considering you get pretty deep in working but I think the world is ending?”

“I-I’m sorry _what_.” Bruce laughed nervously. “You’re actually telling me that the world is_ ending_?!?” Thor nodded but Bruce wasn’t exactly buying it. “You have to be kidding me, the world can’t just end.” 

“Then explain the multiple hoards of zombies walking around town!” 

The _what_? Bruce stared at Thor, his mind going hundreds of miles per minute. Scientifically the undead coming back was not possible. 

“Zombies,” Thor said again as he rummaged around Bruce’s office as if he was looking for something. “There’s already so many milling around town and I don’t doubt that the highways are already jammed up.”

Bruce nodded as he listened to his boyfriend, he didn’t have a reason not to listen to him. “Okay, can I call Tony first?”

“You can call him in the car, we need to get moving now and we need to pack as soon as possible.” Thor tugged on Bruce’s shirt as he fished out his phone, quickly calling his friend. 

“_Hello?_” Tony picked up after the second ring, his voice much calmer that Bruce was feeling. How was Tony so _calm_ in this situation?

“Oh thank God Tones,” Bruce breathed out as he ran a few paces behind Thor, keeping his eyes peeled for anyone shambling around or anyone who could be seen as a threat. “Did you see the news?”

“_Saw it this morning,_” Tony replied. “_I left this afternoon, are you still in the city?_” Although still sounding calm, Bruce knew Tony long enough that he was slightly freaking out. 

“I just found out not even 10 minutes ago, I was grading papers all morning.” Bruce answered honestly as Thor fumbled with the keys before slamming them into the ignition. The streets were relatively clear as they drove down to their small apartment, it didn’t seem like anyone was panicking quite yet, yes there were people running amuck on the streets but it was New York City, seeing these people was a day to day occurrence. “Thor and I are heading to our apartment to pack before we leave.” 

“_Where do you plan on going?_” Such a simple question but with an answer that was so weighted with uncertainty.

“Let me ask Thor, he seems to know what he’s doing.” Bruce turned to Thor expectantly but instead of voicing his thoughts, Thor just shook his head. “So there is no plan apparently.” 

“_Do you want to meet up with us?_” Tony asked and Bruce was for sure that he heard some voices protest.

“Who’s we?” Bruce asked suspiciously, of course he knew Tony extremely well considering they went to the same college and relatively had the same courses and of course the same interests. 

“_Uh, you remember Rhodey right?_” Bruce hummed in response, it was hard not to forget Rhodey, the man who looked after the two (mainly Tony) when they went on binges for studying. “_Rhodey’s army friends are here too, I don’t know if you’ve ever met them before._”

“Can’t say I ever have but I’ve heard stories on how they acted like complete dumbasses.”

Laughter erupted from the background of the call, Tony must of put the call on speaker. “_We picked up a couple of new folks too. Says their names are Clint Barton and Natasha Romanoff, they seem like decent folks, nice too which is a bonus._”

Bruce froze, Natasha Romanoff wasn’t the most common name ever but he only knew one. “What does Natasha look like?”

“_Red shoulder length hair I suppose?_” Tony sounded confused on why he was asking what this stranger looks like. “_She also has this gold necklace, looks like to be shaped as an arrow._”

Holy shit, this actually was his friend, Tony’s description was dead on, the name, the hair and the necklace? There could really only be one person who looked like that. “Holy shit, tell her that I said hi.”

“_Damn you know her? She seems kind of scary,_” Tony said in all light heartedness but a slap rang out over the speaker, Bruce could only assume that Tony got smacked upside the head. “_So Brucie-Bear, what’s going to be your plan now?_”

Bruce removed the phone from his ear and pressed the speaker icon, Thor should hear this was well. He never planned to leave his boyfriend out of this plan. “Go home first thing to be honest, Thor and I need to get some supplies because we are totally unprepared, we may have a medkit in the trunk but that’s about it. What’s your plan?”

“_I’m meeting Pep up north to our cabin but the others tagged along to come with. Planning to repopulate the world when this one goes to shit._” Tony said and Bruce could hear the obvious joke but he groaned nonetheless, some things never change. “_You’re welcome to come with._”

Bruce looked to Thor, his boyfriend had a hopeful look in his eyes and Bruce knew that he had the same expression on his face. Could this really be their big break on staying safe? “Are you sure? I hate to, you know, encroach on the supplies you have.”

“_It’ll be fine as long as you bring your own supplies._” Tony explained. “_You’re forgetting that the majority of this rag-tag group are army folks or know how to survive out here._” 

Bruce let out a snort of laughter. “I’m guessing that Thor, you, and me are the odd ones out?”

Thor rolled his eyes at his boyfriend not calling him a survivalist expert. “Do we need to bring the car?”

“_No,_” Tony said bluntly. “_We don’t know what really sets these freaks off and we don’t want to risk setting them off with the stereotypical noise. You should probably take the car to the suburbs though, we’re pretty far out from the city and I doubt that we’ll stay in one place long so you’ll want to get here fast._”

“Alright, we’ll stay the night in our apartment before leaving early tomorrow morning to meet up with you guys, where can we find you?” 

“_Go to Jericho._” Natasha’s cold yet oddly warm voice spoke up over the speaker. “_Majority of the houses are already boarded up but the house that Clint and I were staying in is at the very end of the cul-de-sac. I’ll be waiting there for you at noon._” 

“Alright, see you then Nat, stay safe.” Bruce said as he hung up the phone with Natasha’s wishes of their own safety. 

The two sat in silence after the Bruce turned off the phone. “So, do you want to raid some apartments to find supplies?” Thor asked, although completely serious, Bruce couldn’t help but notice Thor having a devious glint in his eyes. 

Bruce let out a sharp gasp. “Thor just because the world is going to shit doesn’t mean that we can steal from people!”

“Morally wrong it may be but people in the apartments might already be gone! They won’t miss the stuff we take!” Thor rebutled back, trying to get Bruce to say yes. 

A moment of silence went past before Bruce nodded, although it didn’t sit right with him he did see why they would need to. “Alright but we’re only taking things that we _need_, we’re _not_ taking any valuables from these people, and we are not breaking into any of the houses, we’ll only go look around in the apartments are are already unlocked. No breaking and entering.” 

Thor’s face broke into his normal bright smile as he parked the car on the street. “You’re on medicine duty and I’ll be on food?”

“Do I need to go through what you grab to make sure you don’t grab anything unhealthy?” Bruce questioned, one of his eyebrows raising.

Looking cowed, Thor walked up the stairs with Bruce following behind him. “Alright alright, won’t pack anything unnecessary. There’s already two backpacks on the counter for us, I started to pack when I saw the news just the very basics of it y’know? I only got to back the stuff in our apartment before I came to get you.”

“If we already have our things then why are we getting other people's things?” 

  
“Because we haven’t gone grocery shopping in a week and only have a few nonperishable items and our first aid kit is almost empty.” 

“I wonder whos fault that is.” Bruce grumbled to himself, referencing the multiple times Thor has hurt himself doing day to day things. 

Thor looked embarrassed again as they stood in front of their apartment door. “I go left and you go right? See what we can find and meet back here in two hours?”

“Two hours,” He repeated, grasping Thor’s hand slightly as he ran his own thumb over his knuckles. Although he trusted his boyfriend completely, he still worried about the potential trouble that he could get into despite only being on one floor of the apartment building.

* * *

“What did you find?” Thor asked ask he set down multiple cans of food onto the counter. How he was able to carry so much in one trip was beyond Bruce considering he had to come back to their apartment multiple times. 

“A few cans of food per apartment and a couple of first aid kits that we can break apart into two so we each have one. What about you?”

“Same as you but I found a mallet in one of the corner apartments.” Thor motioned to the wooden mallet that rested against the wall. 

Bruce looked at the mallet with confusion obvious in his expression. “Why would you need a mallet?”

“Self defense.” Thor explained as he started to put cans of food into each of the backpacks (that Bruce wasn’t aware that they had) and as Bruce started to evenly divide up the contents of each medkit found into two for the two of them. “You heard what Tony said on the phone, it isn’t safe out there and I would rather be prepared than not.”

“I don’t think Tony ever said that it was dangerous out there.” 

“Well it was heavily implied and I don’t want to take any chances.” Thor went quiet for a moment, the only sound that filled the kitchen was the sounds of metal cans hitting each other and finally the zipper of Bruce closing up the backpacks. “I don’t want to see you get hurt.” 

Oh, Bruce felt his heart squeeze at the quiet confession. Thor was open about his emotions but hearing this felt like a secret that he needed to keep. “Well I feel like I need to worry about you as well,” Bruce said as a joke, pointing at the band-aids that were plastered against his hands. “That’s why I have some training in medicine.”

“Why didn’t you become a doctor fully?” Thor joked back, the previously heavy air of the apartment slowly becoming lighter. 

“I love teaching too much to become a doctor, plus, I hate the sight of a lot of blood.” 

* * *

The two left their apartment extremely early in the morning, in fact so early that the sun hasn’t even risen yet. They didn’t need to meet Natasha until noon but Bruce was full of anxiety of getting there on time that he forced Thor to roll out of bed prematurely. The only reason why Bruce was able to get Thor out of bed and to actually drive was with the promise of coffee. 

Tea and coffee was something that Bruce had added last minute into each of their backpacks. Tea was really there to help whoever drank it calm down or unwind and the coffee was for Thor who was although a very happy go lucky person, was not a morning person. 

“You ready to go?” Bruce asked as he handed Thor the to-go mug and slid into the passenger seat, their two backpacks sitting at his feet. 

Thor let out a grumble as he took a long sip from his coffee as he started the car and turned on the radio, letting the car fill with the calm classical music that Bruce usually listens to. 

* * *

It was 11:30 when they finally got to Jericho, Natasha didn’t really give them the exact address to where she was meeting them but because Jericho was basically just one long street that split up into three other cul-de-sacs, Thor had to drive around the three before they finally found the right one with Natasha already waiting for them.

“What happened to noon?” Bruce asked cheerfully as he stepped out of the car, shouldering his bag and giving Natasha a hug. It had been some time since he had last seen her. 

“Knew that you would arrive early,” Natasha pulled away from the hug after a little bit, stepping back to say hello to Thor as well who gave her a friendly clap on the shoulder (which she surprisingly did not stumble). “Do you have anything of use in the car?”

“Besides some loose coins and hand sanitizer? Probably not.” Thor replied as he pocketed his keys. 

Natasha hummed as she nodded. “Let’s go then it's about half a day walk to the clearing we’ve stayed in while we waited for you two and I don’t want to get caught in the dark. We haven’t seen any of those zombies yet but we don’t want to risk anything.”

**Author's Note:**

> please consider leaving a kudos and a comment, they really motivate me to write more!!


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